On the afternoon of April 22nd, the news conference of Beijing Modern Music Festival 2008 was held in the Central Conservatory of Music. This is the fifth Beijing Modern Music Festival, and will be hold from May 25th to 30th in Beijing. It is co-sponsored by CCOM and Jiangsu Performing Arts Group. The representatives of Festival Organizing Committee, Producer and the President of CCOM Wang Cizhao and the Artistic Director Ye Xiaogang, and the reporters who came from People's Music, Music Weekly, China Daily, People's Daily (Overseas Edition), China Culture Daily, Beijing Youth Daily, China Central Television (CCTV), Beijing Television Station (BTV), and other news media attended the news conference.
In the news conference, President Wang firstly appreciated the strong support for the event from news media. Then, he pointed out that, Annually Beijing Modern Music Festival, which was initiated and sponsored by the Central Conservatory of Music, has become one of the most important academic events in Chinese music circles and made certain international influences. The important event grants "Modern Music" more opening connotation, which includes many multi-cultural music genres existing in real life. Because of this, the event attracts many outstanding artists from home and abroad to display their artistic charm on the stage of Modern Music Festival every year. Meanwhile, the Festival always pays special attention to young composers and musicians, which is also the concern about future music composition in China. In addition, in such a special moment of 2008, it is beyond question that this international music event with far-reaching influences and high academic qualities is included into the series cultural events by the Organizing Committee of Olympic Games and will do credit to the series.
Followed the speech of President Wang, the artistic director of the music festival, Professor Ye introduced some highlights of this festival to the reporters, including the concert and symposium of Messiaen's composition, making on-the-spot comments on students' composition, highlights from Kunqu opera, etc. Moreover, the artists and performing troupes which come from the United States, New Zealand, Austria, Italy, France, Korean, and Hong Kong, Macao, Jiangsu, Hebei, Shanxi will present over ten concerts in different styles and quite a number of lectures and symposia to the audiences. In his speech, Ye also emphasized that the festival expended the range of music styles gradually, for example, introducing many different music genres belonging to ethnomusicological domain and indicating the tendency of music composition in China. In addition, the Festival will constantly encourage and invite the artists and scholars of other art fields, such as literature and fine arts fields, to participant in the activities of Beijing Modern Music Festival for promoting the exchange on creative thoughts and artistic concepts among different arts.
Through the news conference, the Organizing Committee of Beijing Modern Music Festival 2008 spread following information: Beijing Modern Music Festival 2008 aims at constructing a fine environment that is beneficial to the communication and promotion between tradition and modern, national culture and world culture. The members of organizing committee believe that the Festival would positively promote music composition, talents cultivation, and international communication in China.
